Grandmaster Ma Yue Liang

1901 – 1998

Grandmaster Ma Yue Liang was a famous Manchu teacher of Tai Chi Chuan. He was the senior disciple of Wu Jian Quan, the founder of Wu-style Tai Chi Chuan, and married Wu's daughter Wu Ying-hua in 1930.

Grandmaster Ma Yue Liang was also a medical doctor who graduated from the Beijing Medical College in 1929 and specialized in Hematology. He established the First Medical Examination and Experiment Office and ran the blood clinics at Zhong Shan Hospital in Shanghai. Like Founding Master's Wu Quan Yu and Wu Jian Quan, Grandmaster Ma was of Manchu descent. Grandmaster Ma was educated both in the traditions of China and in Western science.

Grandmaster Ma was a gifted martial artist in his youth. He had studied a number of martial arts including, Shaolin chuan, Three Emperors Pao Chui, Ba gua zhang and Tong bei chuan. However, Founding Master Wu Jian Quan would accept Ma as a student only if he concentrated on Wu-style tai chi chuan. From about age 18, Grandmaster Ma exclusively studied Wu-style tai chi chuan. Founding Master Wu Jian Quan started the Jian Quan Tai chi chuan Association (鑑泉太極拳社) in Shanghai in 1936, and Ma became the deputy director of the Association. Grandmaster Ma studied Tai Chi Chuan with Founding Master Wu Chien-ch'uan until the death of his teacher in 1942. The Jianquan Association still exists today internationally and remains a resource for the study of Wu-style Tai Chi Chuan.

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It is difficult to overstate the importance of Ma Yueliang and his wife in the emergence of Wu-style taijiquan after the Cultural Revolution in China. Even at an advanced age, Ma was chosen as one of the 100 Best Martial Artists in China.Grandmaster Ma Yue Liang also publicly practiced a number of formerly closed door (private or family secret) forms and methods so that that they would not be lost. In public, Grandmaster Wu Ying-hua would often demonstrate the Wu style Slow Set and Grandmaster Ma would follow by demonstrating the Wu Style Tai Chi Fast Form. Grandmaster's Ma and Wu together with Shi Mei Lin wrote the book on the Wu Style Tai Chi Fast Form.

Grandmaster Ma cultivated the Dao in his Daily life and also passed these teachings on to Shi Mei Lin.